Economy

08.08.11

Coming Recession Worse Than the Last?

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President Obama and his economic team really have their work cut out for them: If the U.S. economy returns to a recession, it could be a lot more painful than the last one. (The one we call The Great Recession.) That, as The New York Times points out, is because economic indicators are at a much worse starting point because they have not recovered from the previous blow. Unemployment is at 9.1 percent as compared with 5 percent in December 2007; industrial production is 8 percent lower than it was in December 2007; and the overall economy is, in fact, smaller than it was four years ago. Corporate America, meanwhile, is sitting on $2 trillion in cash, according to the New York Post.